Have High Tech Job in San Fran But Can’t Pay the Rent

CNBC reports on a sobering situation in San Francisco-even though high tech workers can make $100,000 to $700,000 a year in U.S. dollars, they are unable to find quality places to rent, or save for an eventual house purchase. “One digital marketing exec and her husband say they make a million dollars a year and yet can’t afford to buy a house. As she puts it, “The American dream is not working out here.”

As described in a write-up in The Guardian, rents in the San Francisco area are 63.6 per cent higher than the average. The website SmartAsset.com estimated that to rent a two bedroom apartment in 2016 required a base income of $216, 129 annually.

Costs are so high that Facebook engineer “raised the issue with founder Mark Zuckerberg, asking whether the company could subsidize their rents to make their living situation more affordable, according to an executive at the company who has since departed.”

For comparison, here is hot pads’ 2 listings for San Francisco, and a map of median prices for 2014 for a one bedroom rental by area.